WADE PAYNE, The Associated PressTennessee coach Pat Summitt is hit with confetti by Alicia Manning, left, and Alex Fuller after she secured her 1,000 coaching victory.

What do you give the women's basketball coach who has everything?

A winning record? Forget it, Pat Summitt has 34 of them. In fact, she's never had a losing record at the University of Tennessee.

A Southeastern Conference title? Nah, the Lady Vols have won 14 in 28 seasons it has been contested. Don't bother with an SEC tournament title, either. They have a baker's dozen of those trophies in the case.

Eight of her fingers are adorned with national championship rings.

So how did the university honor Summitt when the Lady Vols defeated Georgia 73-43 for her 1,000th career victory?

With a night of a thousand stories. Well, actually, she received a poster announcing the special night where she will be roasted and honored by former players and coaches ... all benefitting her foundation.

And Summitt now has her own star. Or she will when the Knoxville RiverWalk is created this spring. Her star will be the first on the walk.

The SEC gave her a plaque. And she was immediately given what was difficult to get after wins 100 and 800 -- the game ball. Those kind of things are much easier to secure when the game is played on a court bearing your name.

Summitt was given an original piece of artwork, but where do you hang a portrait depicting nearly 35 years of your life? Perhaps on the wall covering the safe that houses a couple of new pieces of bling -- an original bracelet and necklace delivered in a nifty wooden box.

Before she was feted by school officials, Summitt was showered -- literally -- by her team. They hit her with a confetti Gatorade bath in mid-sentence of a nationally televised interview.

"It's a hard number to comprehend," Summitt said before the shower. "It's a time to reflect on a number of things; the school's commitment to women's basketball at a time when it wasn't popular, the players who wore the uniforms. This night should be special for all of them."

The seven-time national coach of the year didn't mind talking about a couple of the other numbers she's experienced: 100 percent graduation rate of players who completed their eligibility at Tennessee and the 58 players who have won at least one national title.

But there are plenty of others she isn't likely to mention, but everyone else will:

18 seasons with at least 30 wins,

.840 winning percentage,

47 percent of Tennessee's games have been played against ranked teams; the Lady Vols have won 73 percent of those games,

She has recruited at least one player from 30 different states, and

Her teams are 42-0 in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.

Coaches around the country have been talking about Summitt and the job she's done.

John Wooden said she is "constantly trying to get better. She is not satisfied, so her team is not satisfied. She is not afraid to borrow from other coaches, to learn from other coaches."

Former coach and current TV analyst Carolyn Peck said Summitt hired her as a restricted earnings coach for her first gig. "There wasn't one thing that happened in a game that she didn't know about. It showed the value in preparation," Peck said.

Bob Knight, who is hanging at 902 wins, said Summitt credits her late father, Richard Head, with pointing her in the right direction.

"After a loss in her first year of coaching, she called her father and he asked if she learned anything from the loss. He told her, 'You don't take a donkey to the Kentucky Derby.' She knew then she had to go out and recruit," Knight said during Tennessee's loss on Oklahoma on Monday.

Summitt's journey to 1,000 wins has been such a big deal that Knight, an ESPN analyst, worked it with Nancy Lieberman. It was his first women's college game for the network.

Thursday's milestone win was part of ESPN's Fullcourt package. But those with various Fox Sports channels could watch it for free.

It was worth the view. Maybe not for the game, which was really over after the Lady Vols turned an eight-point halftime lead into a blowout early in the second half.
It was worth it for the history.

It was worth for the chance to see Summitt finally break into a smile with 1:58 remaining. After decades of being known for "The Stare," it was good to see the grin.

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